[Mission]Do You Smell What the Rock is Cookin'?

[seiuchiblarg]

Mission Details

The mountaintop loomed above, and somewhere up there, Aizaku would find the ore for which he' been assigned to search. The journey there would be an arduous task in itself, and then when he reached the top, the challenges would be greater still. Aizaku has been given a large backpack with a special seal inside of it, allowing you to place the ore therein with almost no limit regarding amounts. It will weigh you down slightly,

Good luck.

[Quinton Rizzer]

Well, time to make a name for myself...

This thought in mind, Aizaku set out on his journey, hoping for success beyond all measure. Up the mountain he climbed, until he reached his first challenge, which he hoped to be able to handle.

(OOC: sry, not really much to start on here)

[seiuchiblarg]

The first challenge itself would present itself after about fifteen or twenty minutes of climbing. It was simple enough: A completely sheer rock face, coated in ice here, or condensation there, cold and bare and slick. It went up probably five hundred feet before he could find himself at the top of it. Wall walking was a possibility, but would be incredibly exhausting to carry himself up a sheer face that high in that way.

Aizaku would need to find a way to get up that would keep him fresh enough to face the remainder of the climb, though on the side above there was not like to be a tremendous amount of climb left.

[Quinton Rizzer]

Really, as a man of his intellect, Aizaku was surprised at his lack of preparation for this climb. He had no gear to climb, only things to dig with. So, with no other option presenting itself, Aizaku placed a foot on the wall and began the long trek to the top of it. It was awkward walking up ice and took much more concentration, but eventually, Aizaku knew he'd reach the climax.

[seiuchiblarg]

Aizaku would find that the climb was quite tiring, but not so bad as he may initially have assumed. The landscape was dull and boring, though there were queer cracks and holes and ridges in the mountain's surface that were abnormal for the land. They made convenient hand holds, though, which perhaps was why the trek wasn't so tiring as he'd thought it was.

Once he got about halfway up, though, the numbness that lulled his hands to sleep in the cold would be shocked away, and feeling sprung back to life. Why, one may ask? The angry red winter ants that dwell within the holes and ridges may be the right answer. The pests make their home in the rock of Lightning Country mountain tops, thriving in cold, high places where few other animals can survive, and their mandibles are tiny enough not to do serious damage, but powerful enough to bore through rock and as such cause tremendous damage when they bit. By the time Aizaku pulled his hand away from the first hot spot of insectile activity -- about halfway up the sheer rock face -- there would be a number of ants on him, each leaving tiny, tiny bruises on his left hand and wrist where he had placed the unfortunate appendage.

He'd have to get the ants off, but too drastic a move could cause him to fall!

[Quinton Rizzer]

The pain that shot through Aizaku's hands but he was sensible enough not to panic and flail to get the creatures, who now plagued him, off. He had to find a way to make his body an unappealing environment for them to be on, and quickly came up with a plan of action.

Slowly pulling his hands from the rock face, he focused on sticking his feet to the wall for a few moments. After satisfied, he quickly formed handseals, with the bugs still eating at his hands. Immediately, his hands began to sizzle as the electricity that covered them fried the creatures that tried to burrow into them. With this done, he began his ascent again, much more wary of where he placed his hands this time.

SpoilerShow

*[Lightning Element • Lightning Shock]
D-rank Ninjutsu
A technique utilized by Raiton users to deliver a small but powerful shock to an opponent. By performing a short set of hand seals and focusing Raiton into his/her own hands, the user can wrap the appendages in electricity. For two posts, any direct contact between the user's hand and the target will send a shock through the target's body. The pain caused is equivalent to being stabbed by a senbon.

[seiuchiblarg]

The technique would work, though one stubborn ant in particular required a little shaking to get off, and a good ten or twelve of the creatures fell to their doom on the rocky floor beneath.

Aizaku could continue his climb and, so long as he remained careful of where he placed his hands, would be able to make it to the top. The trip was tiring, and taking a little bit of time to rest would be a good idea, but the village made it seem as though getting to the ore quickly was a priority. The choice was his.

At the top, of the cliff, Aizaku would find a little more trail up which he would have to trudge. There along this trail were bits of a sparkling blue ore that seemed almost alive in it's brightness. The mountain top seemed to hum with all the ore inside of it. It would be a forested area, large evergreens and pines standing as guardian sentinels to any who wished to pass through them. It would be dark, if it weren't for the way the ore in the mountain top glowed and shimmered.

He could pick out the little bits of ore in front of him, but it wouldn't be nearly enough, unless he could dig into the veins in the mountain top. He would have to find a place where the ore was solid and pure, and cut into it.

What challenges would face him as he searched remained to be seen.

This climb was one of the more treacherous in Lightning country

[Quinton Rizzer]

Once he reached the top, he moved away from the edge, nor wanting to deserve the ants any more. Once he was a safe distance away, however, he laid on the ground and heaved a sigh of relief. After a few minutes, time taken to catch his breath, the shinobi gathered himself and continued his trek, now down the path that would lead him to the harvesting site.

He gathered a bit of the impure specimens and stuffed them into his pockets for his own personal study. Aside from the loose bits, he left a majority of the stuff on the sides of the trail alone. Continuing down the path, he hoped to find a rich vein soon so that he could get back to his actual area of expertise; the science.

[seiuchiblarg]

The climb was one of the more treacherous in Lightning Country, but that did not make it one of the greatest heights. It was actually one of the lower peaks in the Nation, and above him the clouds for which his home village was known roared and rumbled as they roamed. There would be a storm soon, reducing visibility and further making the trip difficult.

It wasn't coming yet, though it wouldn't take long at all. The air already was thick with the scent of ozone, and the gentlest of mists had risen from the ice on the mountain below. His breath was already turning to fog, but that was due in part to the cold. That could be the real problem: The cold. Without a way to warm himself, if Aizaku found himself forced to spend a night up here, he may well perish from that if nothing else.

As he traveled, he would find little pockets, but still not quite the grand chunk he was looking for. He may have noted, however, that as he climbed higher, the mountain's hum grew louder, the bits that glowed were more frequent.

Somewhere out there, deep in the needles, a man with a sword was watching as Aizaku climbed higher.

[Quinton Rizzer]

Cursing under his breath as he noticed the change of weather that was to come, the shinobi tucked his head closer to his chest, using his own body heat to sustain himself. He kept climbing, looking for a suitable vein, but now he also kept his eyes peeled for a cave or some other form of shelter. If he got caught in a storm up here without a shelter, that would most likely be the end for him, so while the ore was important to him, finding a shelter was what his senses tingled for.

[seiuchiblarg]

He would continue climbing, and the trees and ground would rise in elevation all around him, seeming to climb right with him, as the first few drops of rain fell. Aizaku may notice, if he were paying attention to the ground in front of him, that his feet had found a rough path, a makeshift road walked by one person before. lightning country had assured him that he was the only one who would have been here, so a path existing was odd, to say the least.

The thunder rolled above, and a rain had begun to sprinkle. They made an excellent muffler for the man in the woods above, as he leapt from tree to tree. The man moved at seemingly blinding speed, and with a pair of swords, made slices in the branches.

Only seconds apart from one another, large chunks of wood would fly in Aizaku's direction as the until-now-unknown attacker sent them flying. He would travel in a clockwise circle around and above Aizaku, slicing and sending the logs seconds apart from one another in a pattern that Aizaku may be able to recognize, if he could notice it while defending himself from the sudden onslaught of blunt projectiles.

[Quinton Rizzer]

Sadly for Aizaku, he had been unable to notice the tracks of someone traveling this path before him. He had never been much of a tracker and after this mission, barring survival, would have to pick the practice back up, but for now he wandered unknowingly into the trap. The only thing that saved the shinobi from the sudden attack was the sound of metal cutting unto wood above him. It wasn't until the that his shinobi instincts kicked in, and the man found himself tucking himself against a tree. Even as the first attack came and nearly struck his head, Aizaku ducked under it and retreated to the opposite side of the tree. As the attacks continued to some, the attacker making a clock-ward pattern, the Nuuton Family member was able to avoid harm easily enough. As he dodged, however, he pulled out a scroll and performed a summoning, bringing his lance to his aid. The jutsu was quick and could be done on the move, but the important thing was that he now had a way to bat away projectiles.

[seiuchiblarg]

He managed to evade it, but the foe was nonplussed. "Impressive! But Running won't avail you when I attack with my full strength!" And then, the opponent was crashing down from directly above, and not bothering to conceal his notice. The rain came down harder, having at some point during his attack moved from a light sprinkle to an annoyed drizzle, now finding itself being slightly more than that, with a ravenous wind groping out for a treat.

If Aizaku couldn't defend, his skull would be split in two and the fight would be over before it began, but this exchange should be made easy. The blades would cross, a single katana meeting the lance with the enemy using only one hand to fight so far. "Oh, and a fair block, too! Lovely! It looks like I get to face a real opponent!" And then the blows would come raining down, swift, wicked slashes that moved as quickly as Aizaku could, with less finesse than Aizaku himself could muster but three times the force. Blocking would be relatively easy, but it wouldn't feel good on his arms, especially with repeated force. He'd probably end up giving ground, too.

[Quinton Rizzer]

Aizaku did more than gave up ground, he lead a full on retreat. Being weak as he was physically, he was used to dealing with opponents stronger than he was. as he fled in backward bounds, he used tree trunks for cover, leading his opponent to a spacing between two trees that was narrower than the rest. Once through himself, he hurled the lance through the narrow gap. He did not expect his opponent to be dumb enough to walk into it, so as soon as he loosed the weapon from his hand he began forming handseals for an attack, storing raiton chakra in his right hand for when the chance presented itself.

JutsuShow

[Lightning Element •Energy Bolt]
B-Ranked Ninjutsu
After completing a simple set of hand seals the Aizaku will focus chakra into his hand. He then flicks a finger at the target and fires off a high velocity bolt of lightning that travels out a max of ten meters and a speed of 7. The lightning bolt itself will cause only some shock damage, but due to the speed of the attack the impact is more than enough to knock the air out of someone or send them backwards about five meters as if they had just been rammed into. The opponent can resist being knocked backwards if they have a strength of 7.

[seiuchiblarg]

it would indeed take a lot more than a lance to stop this samurai, as was well proven when he ran between that patch of trees, knocking it away with his katana with ease. He was still in fairly close quarters with the man, and he drew his second sword, lunging forward with a great force. He dug his Katana into the ground, and used them to vault himself further forward, using all of his strength to send him plummeting even faster into Aizaku's body, unaware of the jutsu he had prepared. Aizaku would be able to score a direct hit, but in so doing there would be a tussle on the ground as well. Aizaku couldn't outmuscle the man: Could he outmaneuver him?

jutsuShow

Forward Thrust
C-ranked Taijutsu
While moving forward with great momentum in a lunge or spear tackle, the user is able to bury his katana into the ground and push on them with a great effort, sliding them out of the ground just by gripping as they fly forward at +2 speed. This incredible boost, however, makes their trajectory difficult to control, and makes it difficult for them to move whilst lunging. (+2 Speed/-2 Taijutsu)

This will put your enemy at seven speed for the duration of the lunge, and quarters are already relatively close.

[Quinton Rizzer]

The genius went to work like something out of a movie. Being a polearm user, he knew a thing or two about pole vaulting. Considering the physics of it all, he quickly positioned himself so that the two would meet face to face for this ride.

When the man's move brought him into range, the shinobi used his left arm to clear the sward of his body, using his elbow to knock the arm to the outside. In the same swift motion, he grabbed for the man's shoulder and tucked his right hand into the man's chest. As soon as this grab was latched onto, he would allow himself to be knocked to the ground by the momentum, intending to use it for his own purposes. As his feet left the ground, he made the motion to tuck his knees as close as he could get them to his chest. Since the samurai was in the way, Aizaku only manager to bring them up to the man's mid-section. Both men went into a roll as the shinobi bowed his back when they hit the ground. The move would cause him pain, but having already experienced the man's strength verses his lance, he did not want to be pinned under the man long enough for him to get his wits about him.

At the peak of the roll he did a few things at once, the first of which was moving his left hand from the man's shoulder to his chest, since he was no longer pulling the man to him, but pushing him off. Another thing that occurred at the same moment was his extending his legs, causing further separation of their bodies and allowing the samurai's body to continue along its path of momentum without Aizaku holding him down. Finally, to make sure that the wanted separation occurred, he pushed with is left hand enough to open the right hand that had been planted in the man's chest. Only one finger was opened from the clenched fist, and it dug into the man's chest as the shinobi unleashed the prepared jutsu at point plank. The thought was that this would add to the momentum and send the man flying while Aizaku simply continued his roll to his feet. Whether everything worked out in such a way was the question though.

[seiuchiblarg]

They rolled for a good ways, the two of them exchanging blows and duking it out, but at the end of it, Aizaku's Raiton jutsu held true, and the samurai was thrown backwards with a great force, breath catching in his throat. He gasped loudly, hand moving to his chest, surprised that the technique didn't kill him... Perhaps a weak maneuver. The man had expected more from him.

"Not bad.... Nng... Not... bad at all..." He was smiling, eying the two katana that had fallen to the ground beside Aizaku. He was no without blades, except for the one at his back. he had to shout to be heard over the storm. "My name is Kazuki Tennumaru. You've at least earned the right to hear it. I'm from the Iaido dojo in the Land of Tea. And that," he said, looking beyond Aizaku to a point of light just behind him, "is far too valuable for me to let you have, when my dojo stands to gain so much from it."

He slipped the blade off of his back, drawing it with a dramatic flourish. It was a greatsword, half again the size of a katana and twice as wide, with a nasty spike sticking out from the pointed tip. It was a queer sort of gray color, if it could be said to have any color at all, and lightning flashed above them as Kazuki spoke. "You're a fair opponent. Allow me to introduce you to my Meito. ROAR, RYUHANA!" blue energy would rise and coat the blade, taking no particular shape, but seeming to reach out to things. And then he would be charging, body angled low, with Ryuhana pointed out in front of him, reminiscent of a jouster's lance.

Behind him, an enormous boulder glowed brightly, the centerstone of what had now become their battlefield. It hummed loudly, seemingly alive with a neon energy and a hectic glow, and it sat only three feet behind Aizaku.

If Iazaku let the samurai even touch the stone, his life would become immensely harder.

[Quinton Rizzer]

You realize this is Lightning Country, meaning that any resources present her belongs to our citizens. Since this is obviously a misunderstanding of what it is you are entitled to, you are welcome to leave and I will not press for repercussions from my superiors.

Assuming that the samurai was actually set on his course, Aizaku started forming seals for a jutsu as soon as the man lurched forward. Keeping his eye on the sword as though it was the horn of a charging bull, he held the last seal until the last moment and dove sideways, tossing a net of raiton chakra over the spot where he had stood but a moment before. If the man was unable to stop on a dime, he was likely to run head first into the net, rendering himself helpless.

Aizaku, having dived to the side, rolled to his feet, looking to see the results of his gambit.

jutsuShow

[Lightning Element • Lightning Net]
B-Ranked Ninjutsu
After a series of handseals, Aizaku will create a net of lightning chakra with measurements up to 7’x7’ which he can then throw at a target. Once the net leaves his hands, it will send an electric current through the next thing it touches, paralyzing it until one post after the net breaks contact. This jutsu lasts up to three posts once it leaves the user’s hands. Essentially, being caught in this net would result in paralysis for 3 posts in most cases.

[seiuchiblarg]

Kazuki would be caught by the gambit, and Ryuhana would fall to the ground with him, just inches away from touching the stone. Despite his paralysis, he managed to utter a foul curse at the man, before his body began to twitch from the lightning coursing through him.

This incredible stone of ore would be all that Aizaku needed, but he wouldn't be getting home to Kumogakure tonight. The storm showed no signs of letting up, and to his luck, he would be able to see a small opening in a nearby rock wall. It was probably big enough to fit three people, if they abandoned comfort.

Aizaku would have to make a decision about the samurai. He had fought bravely and well, but the fight was over fast, and Kazuki was now helpless. Aizaku could finish the man off, and end the life of a temporarily helpless man, or he could find another way to immobilize him, and risk being followed in the morning.

Either way, before he did any of that, getting the ore in that backpack would be the most important thing.

[Quinton Rizzer]

Aizaku did not even give the man the satisfaction of finishing his curse. With a quick chop, he plunged the man into unconsciousness. That taken care of, the shinobi removed a scroll from his belt and summoned the ninja wire contained within. Binding the man's hand behind his back and his feet together, Aizaku set about making sure the man did not escape or sommit suicide. Tearing a part of his shirt, he wrapped a portion of the wire in the cloth and led it from the bound hands to his neck and back. the amount of force it would take to break the wire was greater than what it would take to cause the samurai to blackout from ceasing blood flow to the brain. The cloth was in place to prevent him from cutting his own throat.

That taken care of he walked over to the sword and looked at it for a few moments. He remembered it shifting form before and now that it was lying on the ground, it looked rough and heavy, much like the landscape. Intrigued by it, he unrolled one of his scrolls slid it under the weapon. The proper fuuinjutsu in place, he sealed the weapon away for later. He did the same for both of the discarded swords and his own lance before finally attending to the task that had actually brought him here.

Studying the rock , it appeared that he would have to stretch out his special backpack to the furthest of its reaches, but he would be able to get the ore in it. That note being made, he set to work getting this done, letting the unconscious samurai soak in the rain. Tomorrow, it was likely that the shinobi would be sick but such a state he would welcome with warmth as not only would he be fulfilling his mission, but he'd be bringing in a captive for interrogation and a new toy to study.

Everything done in his mind, Aizaku headed for the cave that he had spotted, the samurai on his shoulder. Adrenaline would keep him up until the rain let up enough to let him head home with all of the souvenirs he earned on his trip. Hopefully, that was the end of the excitement.

[seiuchiblarg]

The storm would pass overnight, and the samurai would struggle but be unable to free himself. Aizaku will have gathered the ore, his mission technically complete, but if he wanted to bring the Samurai back, he'd need to either get miraculously stronger in the next few hours, or find a way to carry him down the mountain.

[Quinton Rizzer]

Once the storm cleared up, Aizaku bid the samurai farewell, for the next shinobi he would likely see would be one of Kumo's well trained interrogators. Leaving the man with that bit of information to stew over, he delivered a chop to the neck and tied him securely in the cave. Hopefully a wild animal wouldn't make it there before the retrieval squad. With that, the Nuuton family member made his way home, the future of Kumo on his back.

[seiuchiblarg]

He would arrive home safe and sound, his pack full and his mission complete.

SUCCESS!